BRENDAN GLEESON (Sgt. Gerry Boyle), a Dublin-born former
teacher, left the profession to pursue a career in his first love, acting and
joined the Irish theatre company Passion Machine. He landed his first starring
role in I Went Down, which was followed by his much acclaimed role in John
Boorman's The General. His performance gained him awards not only for Best Actor
at the 1998 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards and Best Actor at the 1998
ALFS, but also the Best Actor award at the 1999 Irish Film & Television Awards.

Gleeson's rise to fame began when he appeared in Jim Sheridan's The Field,
followed by a number of small roles in such films as Far and Away and Into the
West. He attracted the attention of Hollywood when he starred as Hamish in the
film Braveheart, alongside Mel Gibson. Other notable screen credits include John
Woo's Mission: Impossible II, Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence;
John Boorman's Tailor of Panama and Country of My Skull; Danny Boyle's 28 Days
Later; and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

Over the past few years Gleeson has become a household name after appearing
in a number of successful films. His film credits include August Nicholson in M.
Night Shyamalan's The Village; Cold Mountain directed by Anthony Minghella;
Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven; Breakfast on Pluto directed by Neil Jordan;
Wolfgang Petersen's Troy; Black Irish directed by Brad Gann; Studs directed by
Paul Mercier; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire directed by Mike Newell; Harry
Potter and the Order of Phoenix directed by David Yates; John Boorman's The
Tiger's Tail; and the motion capture Beowulf directed by Robert Zemeckis.

He also appeared in In Bruges in 2009, under the direction of Martin McDonagh,
alongside Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. It was nominated for a Golden GlobeĀ®
and a BAFTA Award for his role. His recent credits include Perrier's Bounty,
directed by Ian Fitzgibbon for Parallel Films and Green Zone, a Paul Greengrass
film with Matt Damon. He also returned to the role of Professor 'Mad-Eye' Moody
in the seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows: Part 1. He also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in
a Miniseries or Movie for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in HBO's Into the
Storm directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. The film garnered fourteen Emmy
nominations in total.